Dick Weis: A Coach of Champion Runners at Albertus Magnus

Famed Coach of ‘The Long Red Line’ Fondly Remembered

By Jamie Kempton

The end of an era was signaled by the recent passing of Coach Dick Weis, one of the greatest coaches in the history of Rockland County scholastic sports.

Coach Weis, who died December 30, 2025 at age 87 in Stillwater, OK, guided the 1974 Albertus Magnus boys’ cross country team – known as the Long Red Line – to the No. 2 national ranking, to this day the highest season-ending rating for a Rockland athletic team in any sport. He coached the Falcon harriers to back-to-back New York State championships in the fall of 1974 and 1975, the first Rockland team to capture consecutive State titles. His undefeated 1974 squad is considered the premier cross country team in Rockland County history, having won the Eastern States and New York State championships, setting records for low point scores in both the State and Rockland County meets, and easily securing the Section 9 Class B title as well. His Falcon runners convincingly swept the three major meets at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, the mecca of cross country courses in the Northeast: the Manhattan College Invitational, the St. John’s University Invitational, and the Eastern States Championships, sponsored by Fordham University.

National Recognition

At the conclusion of the 1974 season, Albertus competed in a two-mile track race at Iona Prep to determine its national ranking. At that time no national championship race existed, so teams ran a two-mile race at a sanctioned track meet. The times of a team’s top five runners were combined and sent in to Track & Field News in California, where teams were ranked based on the fastest aggregate time. Albertus Magnus ultimately finished second in the rankings to perennial national power York High School of Elmhurst, IL. “We were very disappointed that we weren’t national champs,” said John McNiff, a varsity member of the Albertus Long Red Line. “Our times proved we were one of the best teams ever. We learned that if you’re willing to do the work and have a positive attitude, you can do anything.”

In just four years at the Bardonia-based Catholic secondary school, Coach Weis’s cross country teams laid claim to three Rockland County meet titles, three Rockland Public School Athletic League dual-meet crowns, and three Section 9 Class B championships. His prize pupil, Howie McNiff from the class of 1973, won New York State titles in all three seasons his senior year, a first in state annals: the Class B cross country championship, the two-mile in the indoor State meet in the winter, and the mile at the outdoor State meet in the spring. Weis also coached Mike Colangelo to the individual New York State Class B cross country title in 1974, during the Long Red Line’s finest campaign. Weis’s Falcons came back the following year to successfully defend their Class B State title, no easy feat in the competitive world of New York State long-distance running.

To be continued in next week’s edition, where Kempton will expand on Coach Weis’ long legacy of positive thinking and his fervent dedication to his athletes.